The Guide to Create the Optimal You

We live in an amazing time. We have technology that allows us to instantly see what people are doing on the other side of the planet. Hell, we get to see instantly what people outside the planet are doing. We have the ability to date who ever we want by opening an app. We can find whatever cuisine we'd like to eat even if we just landed in a city we've never visited.

We live in the age of now.

Everything our hearts' desire can be given to us at the press of a button. Of course everything described above only solves our external wants and needs. Putting the pieces together to solve the internal puzzle become a bit more challenging.

We find ourselves living in a world where we think everything can be an overnight success (see Justin Bieber and Youtube for instance).

I'm here to tell you that the idea of an overnight success is a fucking lie. It's a myth. It's fugazi. It doesn't exist. You're not going to have that unbelievable idea that takes you to the Moon, or sorry, Mars would be more current. You're not going to meet that one person that is going to unlock every opportunity that will yield unwavering success and happiness. It just isn't in the cards.

You are going to need to build the best version of you over time. Putting in the hard work day in and day out. Getting just a bit better everyday.

Here's how:

1. Wipe clean your old self and start with a blank slate:

This is important if you want to be your best self. Who are you right now? where are your priorities? Take some time to examine your day. Are you at a job you hate? You might need to fix that. Are you in a relationship that brings more misery than love? Sorry, baby. You might need to go. Do you play video games and watch Honey Boo Boo over creating valuable work? Think of the toxic, unproductive ways you create your existence and wipe them clean.

2. Find your muse:

Now that you've shed the chains of your old self that held you back, what drives you? What gets you excited when you wake up in the morning? One of the greatest gifts about being human is the ability to be creative. You can be creative in a plethora of ways: make jewelry, write, paint, sing, dance, design makeup, solve mathematics, whatever!

3. Prioritize your time:

Now that you have a foundation for who you want to be, it's time to make sacrifices. It sucks but it's part of playing the game. You can't fall back into the poor routines that got you nowhere in the first place. You want to go to the beach with friends instead of write the next chapter of your book? You probably shouldn't if you know where your priorities lay.

4. Develop your routine:

We are the sum total of the actions we take on a daily basis. With this new mindset, everyday should be an opportunity to get slightly better. Don't burn yourself out. Imagine the daily work you put in as if it were money in a savings account. You put in a dollar a day. By the next day it won't be all that exciting. After 2 years however, you have a decent chunk of change. After 10 years, you're looking pretty damn good.

5. Find a mentor

We all need help. We live in a world today where you can get in touch with an expert in virtually any industry by getting online and searching for them. The power of an interpersonal relationship with a human mentor cannot be understated. If you can't seem to find one that will help you take the next step, find a community of people doing the same things you are online.

6. When you fail, learn why and then fix it.

The Japanese have a proverb that helps exemplify this thought: fall down seven times, get up eight. Now that you have stake in the game and you have redefined yourself you are going to have setbacks. These setbacks might hurt. You got decently far and took a huge hit. It sucks. Why did you take that hit? What can you learn from it so it doesn't happen again?

You're now in the game to finding your true nature. It might feel hard at times and seem as if things are moving too slow. Once you make it though, you'll look back and realize it wasn't an overnight success. It was rather the long nights that led to success.